Today's
Meditation:
Oh, boy-- does this one hit home. In my lifetime people
have come in and out of my life constantly, and so rarely
have I told them how much I care for them and appreciate
them. Many of them I'll never see again, and thus
I'll never have the chance to tell them what they've meant
to me. Many of them I still see regularly, yet I
don't tell them how much I care for them. And this
even though I know how much it means to me to hear the
same thing from other people. If it means a lot to
me to hear it from others, then wouldn't it mean a lot to
others to hear it from me?
My
major problem is that I've spent my whole life thinking
that others aren't really affected by what I think about or say
to them. In short, I think that they don't really
care if I love them or not-- they can get along just fine
in life without ever knowing that I do love them. As
a boy and a young man, I shied away from sharing such
feelings because I was sure that they just didn't
matter. As a man, that thought is so deeply
ingrained in me that I have a hard time fighting my way
past it and telling people that I love them while they're
here with me.
It
really is a tragedy that we don't spend more time sharing
such feelings with others. While I'm sure there are
some people who would feel awkward if I told them, as long
as I'm sincere and I tell them with no expectations of
anything in return, most people would appreciate being
told how much they mean to me.
And
telling people that we love them can help us to contribute
in a very real and very positive way to the world in which
we live, for the more people there are in the world who
feel loved, the more people there will be in the world who
are able to share love with others.
|